Heaven's Gate tape will go on sale

May 12, 1997
Web posted at: 5:23 p.m. EDT (2123 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A tape made by the leaders of the Heaven's Gate cult two decades ago, explaining their apocalyptic, UFO-laden theology, will soon go on sale and could be the basis for a TV special.

Marshall Applewhite, who committed suicide along with 38 followers in March, and Bonnie Lu Nettles Trusdale, who died of cancer in 1985, made the "last statement" tape in 1976, at a time when they believed they were going to be assassinated and resurrected.

They signed a contract instructing that the video go on sale 30 days after their deaths. The tape has been stored in an Oklahoma vault for the past 21 years.

Profits from the tape and possible TV special will be split between the heirs of Applewhite and Trusdale, the William Morris Agency, which is overseeing the sale of the video, the video's producer and Los Angeles attorney Jerry Weinstein, who represents the producer.